OUTSIDE THE BOX **The Haiti Diaries (THD) Day 2**

I woke up the next morning feeling brand new and I was ready for whatever the day had to bring me! Our first task of the day was to visit some orphanages. While at these orphanages we acted out some skits, sang lots and lots and lots and lots (you get the picture) of songs and played some games. In the midst of all of this we also made sure to hold the kids closely, give them kisses and show them that we cared. I will touch more on orphanages and some of our experiences in some of the upcoming posts!
    After our visits we headed back to the Lifeline Mission and walked through the village. At first is was a normal walk and we looked around in amazement taking every little thing in. Soon children began running up to us seeking our attention. Before we knew it there were a ton of kids surrounding us as we walked to the dam. Once we arrived at the dam many of the kids went swimming and showed us how they jumped into the water. This is when I first encountered one of the biggest challenges....learning names. Not only do they ask your name, they tell you theirs, and you should expect them to ask you what their name is within the next ten minutes. This was a challenge for me, not only are their names much different from ours, but there are a lot of kids that want you to remember them! I decided that it would be quite impossible to remember all of their names and so I just remembered the short easy ones.
    After watching many of the kids play in the water the team decided to walk up the river and check it out. I slowly made my way over to find that our little friends were going to follow us there as well. Everyone on the team had at least one child by there side and as I walked towards them I could feel all of their eyes on me. Here I came walking up to everyone with not one, not two, not three, but six children at my side. All of them holding my hand or an article of my clothing and each one smiling, laughing, and trying to talk to me.  Lets just say that by the time I actually met up with the team they had already decided to head back to the dam. If there is one thing I learned that day at the dam it's that kids seem to love me as much as I love them. Holding their hands gives them a sense of love and me a sense of comfort. Showing them love comes naturally to me and I think that is why they tend to gravitate towards me a lot. It can be overwhelming at times but in the end their smiles make it all worth it!
    To conclude my day I decided to make some interesting decisions. Number one, tonight was the night I was going to face one of my fears and number two, I was going to purchase a machete. Number two was not that difficult for me and you can see a photo of it below. I will let you know that it is for display only and is not able to be reached by my siblings. Number one, on the other hand, was a big step for me. I was going Tarantula hunting. (For those of you with a fear of spiders I recommend that you skip down to the next paragraph!) Now most of you know, spiders are not liked in my family. I don't like them, my sisters don't like them and my mom doesn't like them. So deciding to go tarantula hunting was a pretty big thing for me. I'm sorry to say that I did not get any pictures but these things were bigger than my camera. We saw about three that night and after getting up close to them I realized that they aren't that bad!
      My first full day in Haiti was a success and I realized that I loved kids more than I originally thought!! My body was starting to get used to the heat and my heart was at peace knowing I was living my dream once again!